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Damon Lindelof Hired to Rewrite Paramount's Plagued 'World War Z'

by Ben Pearson
June 8, 2012
Source: THR

We wondered what the deal was when Paramount bumped their anticipated zombie movie World War Z from this December to next June, and we soon found out that things weren't going so great when the scheduled a whopping seven weeks of reshoots for the movie. Looks like things are worse than we all thought, because THR just reported that Paramount has hired Prometheus screenwriter and "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof to rewrite the movie in preparation for those upcoming reshoots. Apparently he'll be concentrating mostly on the third act of the script including an improved ending. More below!

I thought Prometheus was great (so did Jeremy - read his review here), but a lot of people were disappointed with Lindelof's continued ambiguity and unanswered questions that he seems to be fond of utilizing as a writer. (I also loved "LOST" - yes, even the finale - so I might be a bit biased here.) Remember, Lindelof was brought on to rewrite Jon Spaihts' script for Prometheus when it was much more of a straightforward prequel to Alien, so I can see why this announcement of him coming on to rewrite World War Z might give some fans of Max Brooks' story some pause. I'll be honest though, Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster has always been the one element of this production that has given me the most doubt so far. We'll have to wait until next summer to see how everything turns out.

Filed under Development, Movie News

From around the web:

Sacramento

Lost has been a curse on entertainment. Hollywood should stop following their pretentious formula storytelling.
- Big Boss
  
  Amen, Sac.
Bazzer

Hello - Prometheus - alarm bells anyone
son_et_lumiere

i love Max Brooks' book. it's entertaining, engaging, takes an unusual approach and is highly re-readable. people said great things about J. Michael Straczynsk's script. The Walking Dead showed something similar could be done. god, was i excited. then - Marc Forster comes in as director. Straczynski's script gets discarded. then so did the main character. then they change the story to a single hero. then 7 weeks of reshoots, via a panicked call to writer de jour. i've gone from colourful and hyper-excited to grey and zombiefied. this is what it looks like when Hollywood rides a trend with no understanding of why the trend started in the first place.
- http://www.facebook.com/StromboliSyndrome Steven Morgan
  
  I wish they were following max brooks book and he was on set to be sure it went accordingly. The great thing about World War Z was that it told it through so many perspectives around the world in a dark gritty realistic style. Why bring World War Z to the screen with the same old zombie story with one character. Even though it may seem cliche to have Danny Boyle direct world war z with max brooks overseeing it and a better screenwriter than Damon lindelof who quite often follows the formula of asking more questions than answers. As prometheus will attest to.....
  - son_et_lumiere
    
    from what we've heard, it would seem one of the things about the book that made it such a great read - those different perspectives - is the one thing the film-makers couldn't get their heads around!
    - http://www.facebook.com/StromboliSyndrome Steven Morgan
      
      World War Z felt real, felt like what would happen if a Zombie apocalypse actually happend. It was not like Zombieland or Shaun of the dead where it was humorous, it was more like 28 days later from all around the world. The movie will in my opinion most likely disgrace the book, nothing that they can say can change that for me. The feeling of jumping from the battle of yonkers to a kid in japan to another story continuously and caring about each character and the detail of the world is unparalleled. World War Z the movie is beginning to feel like a cash grab of the zombie craze rather making anyone want to go in to see a solid story.
Voice of Reason

I do like Damon Lindelof, but if he continues with his 3-questions-for-every-answer approach, he will exhaust his career sooner rather than later. I seriously crave more modern movies that give its audience a sense of finality. A definitive end. A genuine story told from start to finish. Unless its a pair of legs from a Victorias Secret model, I'm getting tired of having things be left open. Plus, with a lackluster Quantuum of Solace and Monsters Ball being the only gem in Fosters roster, I can't help but think the addition of reshoots bodes badly for this movie.
John stamos-tly sexy

It's got brad Pitt and zombies... It's just hard for me to believe it can be THAT bad... Now I'm thinking it will end up reworked so much it'll be a cluster f**k
grimjob

Goddamn shame. I wonder what ol' Max thinks of all this bullshtein?
germss

Can we please just change the title of this movie? Then give the rights over to HBO or Showtime and have them make a World War Z miniseries?
Christopher Batty

Never ceases to amaze me the bad decisions studio execs make time and time again. Lindelhof ruined Prometheus. And he will ruin Star Trek 2.
holivuddoznotknowshit

Lindelof is new M. Night Shyamalan?
Bobo_Vision

Formulaic writing based on J.J. abrams love of the mystery box. He told an anecdote about a magic box he bought as a kid which had a big question mark on it. He paid 20 bucks for it, and he never opened it to this day because his imagination of what could be in the box was far more wonderous than anything that could have been in it. Thats his philosophy towards film and tv, and he has schooled teams of writers to adopt the same philosophy, lindelof being one.
- anythingformulaicsux
  
  Were there a lot of lense flares emanating from the box directly into his eyes?
- Ticketmaster
  
  OH so that's why Abrams and Lindelhof are such terrible story tellers.
Oblique

Let's Prepare for a bunch of questions and no answers.
Jman571

ahhhhhh fuck. so much for looking forward to this movie. If Lindelof wasn't bad enough it sounds like all these re-shoots are the nail in the coffin.
lol_holivud

Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Zachdillon86

The only gem in Forster's roster? What about Stranger Than Fiction? And Finding Neverland? I think he is a solid director.
Son I'm a dissapoint

Lindelof is gonna lindelof.
The Moo

Just ignore it...then it might go away.
- ****
  
  I say we take off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
rennmaxbeta

Say goodbye to any chance of satisfactory storytelling with Lindelof scripting.